Joel Mandelbaum

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Joel Mandelbaum (born in 1932) is an american composer and a teacher. He's most particularly known for his use of microtonal tuning (notably the Just intonation tuning and the 19ET and the 31ET).

He's also known for having written the very first Phd dissertation on microtonality in 1961.

[edit] Life

He had his Ph.D. at the University of Indiana in Music Theory in 1961. His thesis was about the "Multiple Division of the Octave and the Tonal Resources of 19-tone Temperament". He was teacher at Queens College of the City University of New York from 1961 to 1999 and was chairman of the music department. He first got interested by microtonality thanks to a lecture by Hindemith in which he presented various historical theories of tuning. He began a correspondence with Prof. Fokker which led to a six-week stay in Haarlem in 1963, during which he composed to Euler's genera under Fokker's tutelage. The result was "10 Studies in 31-Tone Temperament" premiered at the Fokker organ in Haarlem.